Last Tasting- Bokonon Bitter.

I've been holding onto the last bomber of this beer for awhile. I was going to open it when my parents were out to visit, but we tried some other stuff. Tonight seemed like a good time.
It seems to be pouring with a little more carbonation than I remember, but feels the same in the mouth. Great clear copper color.
The taste is pretty much as I remember it, however the hops seem to have lost some of their bright floral flavor though an overall perception of bitterness is still there. Rich carmelly somewhat lingering finish.
Pretty tasty and I am sad to see it go.. But of course I can make more and improve upon it!

Bitter Revisited.

I finally got myself a proper pint glass instead of the jelly jars. I have been tasting and had some friends tasting this beer. I have gotten some pretty good reactions to it. One person said it could use a little more body which I do agree with and can easily do the next time around. Others said they liked the hopping and found it like an IPA with the volume turned down. I can see that as well.
I think the next time I make a bitter I will change two things. The first is that I will use darker crystal malts to obtain to color as opposed to roasted barley. There is really only a touch of that in this beer but I feel like I get a little of the roastyness in the taste and I don't feel as though that should be there. This will also contribute more body.
Second, I will add more hops later in the boil. I feel like it could use a bit more hop aroma and flavor, while the over all bitterness is fine.
I am really enjoying this beer and it is disappearing all too quickly.
I have also updated the pages for my sour mash experiment(bottled) and second Saison(moved to secondary fermentation).

Bitter - First tasting.

I am having the first taste of my bitter today, only a week after bottling and three weeks after brewing. It is nice to do a batch with a shorter maturation period after the several in a row month long plus brews that I have been doing.
In the glass this beer is a vibrant copper color. Little head, but that is fine by me. I don't think you would get a big head from a bitter unless it was nitro'ed or real cask ale. Little carbonation, just enough to feel.
As for taste... This beer is definitely better at cellar temps or around 50 degrees. The second glass had a much better and brighter taste. Nice light malt and caramel sweetness, a light amount of bitterness, floral hop bouquet both in the nose and in flavor. Nice light moderately lingering finish of caramel and malt.
Entirely too drinkable!

Bitter.

Bitter is one of my favorite styles, but one that seems hard to find good authentic versions of here. What you should see is a copper/amber color, light malty sweetness, and accentuated hop aroma. You will not see the over powering (in my opinion) hops found in American pale ales and IPAs. Alcohol should be in the range of 3-7% abv, with ordinary bitters being on the low end of that range and extra special bitters (ESB) being towards the higher end.
To me the benchmark of the style of ordinary bitter is Coniston Bluebird Bitter. Brewed with Maris Otter and caramel malts and Challenger hops, this one weighs in at 3.6% abv, and if you ever get a chance to try it, take it!
I brewed a bitter using malt extract several months ago, and it was one of the best beers I have made thus far. Now that I have moved on to all grain brewing, I wanted to try to brew a bitter again in this method. I also wanted to do something that would mature quicker. I am fine to have something take a month plus, but at this point, I wanted something I could have in the bottle in 14 days or less.
This recipe comes straight out of Beer Captured by Tess and Mark Szamatulski. It is their clone of Bluebird bitter, though it does end up with a few more alcohol points.
7.5 lb Maris Otter
7 oz medium crystal
4 oz torrified wheat
.5 oz roasted barley
23 g Challenger pellets @ 60 min
7 g Challenger pellets @ 15 min
7 g us Saaz pellets @ 15 min
1 tsp Irish moss @ 15 min
14 g Challenger pellets @ 2 min
Wyeast 1968
Target og- 1.043-44
Actual og- 1.044
Final - 1.009
4.6% Abv
79% apparent attenuation
65% actual attenuation
4/7/10- 90 minute single step infusion mash at 150 degrees. Had to add some boiling water to bring the temp back up when it dropped into the 140's. Sparged with 5 gal 170 degree water, collected 7+ gallons. I had to do part of the sparging pretty quickly as I noticed it was 330pm and I had to leave the house at 6, and wanted to do a 90 minute boil. Ran the beginning slow, then tried to alternate between some slow and fast running. Ended up only boiling for 1 hour and 15 min, but that worked ok as I was left with 5.25 gal of wort (or so). Hit the target og on the head! Pitched yeast a little hot, 89 degrees. Active fermentation by the next morning.
4/21/10- Bottled today with 2.5 oz corn sugar, aiming for 1.75 volumes of co2. Tastes sooooo good already! Should be drinkable in another week or so.

Final gravity.

A great copper color.

In bottles. I forgot I was so low on bottle caps. I only had 28. Fortunately I thought of this before I sanitized 60 12 oz bottles. I had just enough caps to do 28 bombers.
4/28/10- First tasting.
5/19/10- Second tasting.